There is excitement in the air in Palau as the first flight of a weekly service from Australia kicks off. Palau's President Surangel Whipps Jr said flights connecting Brisbane to Palau through PNG began on Tuesday. The service is new and is being underwritten by the Australian government's flight programme, Whipps said. He said Air Niugini is flying the route, which was not in operation pre-pandemic. "The weekly flights will be operated by the airline's Boeing 767 aircraft every Tuesday from Brisbane to Palau via Port Moresby with the return flight on Wednesday," Air Niugini Chief Executive Officer, Bruce Alabaster said. Flights to Kiribati, Pompei, Marshall Islands and Nauru are also part of the initiative, in an effort to ramp up air travel and better connect the Pacific, Whipps said. The Nauru service resumed after a two and a half years on hold due to covid-19 border closures. "The programme has supported over 450 flights in the Pacific since December 2020 and throughout the covid-19 pandemic across 14 routes and 11 countries. "This has helped keep Pacific communities connected, maintain supply chains and deliver critical medicines," an Air Niugini spokesperson said. Palau relies on the tourism market and direct access to the Australian market will provide a major boost to the local economy, Alabaster said. He said the real pull factors for tourists are diving and outdoor activities which are unique to Palau. President Whipps encouraged New Zealand and Australian tourists to take up the opportunity. Source: RNZ.Com

Although its a priority of the Government to ensure tax revenue is adequate to fund priority development projects, the increase Corporate Tax for Commercial Banks to 45% was put through without proper consultation, and will in the long run, see commercial banks struggle with its services to customers. That’s from Kina Bank Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director Mr. Greg Pawson when highlighting the potential impacts on Kina Bank as a result of this increase in Corporate Tax. “The reality is that we are a public listed company, and we rely on our shareholders to continue to invest, we re-invest our profits.” “But we also at times reach out to them for more capital to invest, and to put that in perspective, the challenge we’ve got now is why would they invest in an organization that is paying half of their revenue in tax, that just makes no sense.” Mr. Pawson said compared to other countries in the region, Fiji has a 15% Corporate Tax rate, Singapore 17% and PNG has 45%, which he said is among the highest in the world for a commercial bank to be paying. “With it, defeats the whole underlying purpose of commercial banks contributing to the economic propensity of the country.” “Potentially, interest rates will increase, and all concessional lending will stop and some of the investment that we’re planning to make, particularly regional PNG where those communities desperately need banking competition, won’t go ahead.” Sadly, he said further down the line, other services the bank provides to customers would decrease, like financial inclusion and even the plans to extend the bank’s service to parts of the country, like opening new branches, would stop. Pawson added this corporate tax increase was done without proper consultation with the banking sector in the country and as a result, this is now starting to impact the commercial banking services. Despite all this, Kina Bank today announced its 2022 Full Year Financial Results, a Net Profit After Tax of K106.1million, which is an increase of 11% from the previous year. The CEO said the result reflects the Kina Bank’s continued commitment to the nation building program in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Kina Bank provides banking and financial services to over 700, 000 people and lent over K300million this year, helping to support more Papua New Guineans open bank accounts, build new homes, start businesses and grow their prosperity. Mr. Pawson also added that over 300, 000 new customers also joined Kina Bank in 2022. [embed]https://fb.watch/iZh2S4HI4N/[/embed]

The BSP Financial Group Limited (BSP) continued to record yet another profit in 2022 despite all the challenges the year brought . The BSP group Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Ronesh Dayal, said the group recorded a net after profit of K1billion, which is up 5.7% from 2021. He made these remarks today when presenting the group's 2022 Full Year Results Mr. Dayal said, “This good result is attributed to the reopening of the borders post COVID and the improved economic activities.” “Although the results were good for 2022, it could have been better.” "The results were impacted by the K190million Additional Company Tax and a one off K135million credit tax expense that resulted from the restatement of deferred tax balances for PNG bank from 30% to 45% in December 2022." Despite this, Mr. Dayal said the bank also saw increased transaction channels, lending, electronic banking and it continues to expand services with the opening of new branches and ATMs through out the country. He added that the good results make the statement that BSP continues to be the largest bank in the South Pacific and Papua New Guinea. “BSP aims to do even better in 2023 for its customers and shareholders alike.” [embed]https://fb.watch/iZ9PwWXrWw/[/embed]

Prime Minister James Marape has made a call to the criminals responsible for holding hostage Australian Professor Bryce Barker, alongside fellow members of his research team in the Southern Highlands province, to surrender to police immediately before the law catches up with them. He said what had happened was serious and now the second phase of this operation will be to have those criminals arrested and charged accordingly. Marape said the first phase of the operation was completed with the release of the three hostages, including the Professor Bryce Barker. Prior to their release, the criminals had released the first hostage, a female, earlier during the week. “Criminal enterprise has no reward to it. Police operation will move into second phase, so you come out now or police will come into where you are,” stressed PM Marape. He said this area in Southern Highlands is of national interest because of its biodiversity, as such a security team comprising of police and defense force personnel will still be based up at the location in Mt Bosavi and ready to respond should there be a call to go into the now marked hot spot area and apprehend the criminals. [video width="1920" height="1080" mp4="https://pnghausbung.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/PM-Marape-on-criminals.mp4"][/video]

Home at last, the last remaining hostages taken by criminals in the Southern Highlands have been released unharmed by their captors and are now back safe in Port Moresby with their families.  Prime Minister (PM) James Marape was at hand to receive them this afternoon at the APEC Terminal.  Marape said the work to have them released was a joint effort by police, the defense force and the provincial governments of Southern Highlands, Western and Hela provinces.  “I want to thank the police commissioner, his men and women, the defense force commander and all his men, governor Undialu and all Hela leaders and a host of people, missionaries and community leaders who assisted in this operation.”   “It has been a stressful week for all involved and to finally have the hostages back safely in the custody of our security personnel is very important to us as a country, and as a people. We apologize to the families of those taken as hostage for ransom. It took us a while, but the last three hostages are now secured and will join their families shortly,” the PM said.   Marape also said an amount of cash was given to secure their release, but it was not the full amount of K3.5million that was initially demanded by the criminals as ransom money.  Meanwhile, the PM made a call to the criminals to surrender to police before the law gets to them. He said what happened was serious and now the second phase of this operation will be to have those criminals arrested and charged.   Marape said the first phase of the operation was completed with the release of the three, including the New Zealand Professor, Bryce Barker.   Initially, the criminals released the first hostage earlier this week.    A security team comprising of police and defense force personnel is still based up at the location and ready to respond should there be a call to go into the area and apprehend the criminals.   Nevertheless, for the freed hostages, it was a relief to be finally free and back in the safety of their families, who were also there at the airport this afternoon to see them come home.   

Home at last, the last remaining hostages including Professor Bryce Barker taken by criminals in the Southern Highlands have be released unharmed by the criminals and are now back in Port Moresby with their families. PM James Marape  was at hand to receive them this afternoon at the APEC Terminal. Marape said the work to have them released was a joint effort by police, the defense force and the provincial governments of Southern Highlands, Western and Hela provincial governments. Marape also said a sum of cash was given to secure their release, but it was not the full amount of K3.5million that was initially demanded by the criminals.

The proposed media policy, although the government said its to help improve media reporting in the country, contains some provisions that have raised concerns from the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Media Council, the mainstream media and think tank organizations such as the PNG Institute of National Affairs (PNG INA).  The Executive Director of PNG INA Mr. Paul Barker said that there are some parts of it that are relatively harmless, but he certainly believes that there are issues that are related to media control, which is problematic.    Mr. Barker pointed out that one topic mentioned in the policy that he is questioning is defamation, which he said does not need to be further extended than it is already as a law.   He said that it’s difficult to see the justification for it because there are various pieces of legislations in the country that are related to defamation to cyber security laws; therefore, he is questioning why a need for further legislations in the policy that could put constraints on the media, when it is obvious that the media is there for a reason.    “The media is there for a purpose and it’s there to keep people informed, it plays that important function. People call it sometimes the fourth arm of the state in that it's there performing the function of keeping the state accountable by raising awareness and empowering citizens to be aware and then ensure that the state performs in accountable manner, using the taxpayer’s money,” said Mr. Barker.   Barker stressed that it’s hard to see why additional legislation is required in excess of the defamation and cyber security legislation when these laws are already strong in the country.   “If the media defames individuals and the strengthen, there are powers and capacity within the courts to address it and those powers are pretty strong, and it’s a little hard to see why there needs to be additional laws under a media legislation.”    He understood that this is the government’s way to reinforce the media accountability mechanism and strengthen the media to perform its role, but he pointed out that the media council is already there, which pretty much does that role.    “The media council exists, it’s a voluntary mechanism for effectively setting standards and self- policing and it would be helpful for it to be a bit better resourced to be able to perform that function.”   “But, to actually give it the powers under the legislation and to impose burdens on it as well, does seem to shift it from being a media voluntary body to becoming a state regulatory authority and that seems to be an excessive responsibility for the media council,” said Mr. Barker.    Mr. Barker concluded by saying that there are provisions in the policy that could be useful to the media, but certainly the restrictive and controlling ones are what the media fraternity must be very cautious of.    

Thousands of city residents in Port Moresby will continue to endure the water rationing and power load shedding for an indefinite period. According to PNG Power Limited, the system operations team reported that power load shedding will continue in the city until the blockage at the Rauna power station, caused by the recent heavy rains, is fully cleared. That work is ongoing with no confirmation yet as to when it will be completed because the blockage is quite big. The power company stated that the blockage was caused by huge boulders and debris that were washed down from the PNG Power owned Sirinumu Dam further up in the mountains, during the recent flooding caused by the heavy rains. The debris clustered at the filters of the massive intake tanks that hold the water that is channeled at highspeed to turns the turbines, which then generates electricity. Therefore, the operation to clear those areas will need equipment to do so and it will need time, especially when rain continues to fall up in the mountains of Sogeri in the Central province. PNG Power stated that the concern now is that if those boulders managed to get into the turbines, then it could cause massive damages to it, resulting in a possible total disruption to power supply from Rauna. Therefore, this cleanup is vital. Meanwhile, the water supply to the city is also affected because Water PNG Limited depends on the PNG Power water supply connection that feeds the turbines and when there is a blockage, the water supply is stopped to allow the cleaning to take place, and when this happens Water PNG has no choice but to wait.

The rate of life insurance coverage in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is very low and it’s a concern because workers should at least have some form of insurance to cover them and their families should there be any emergency cases, or in the event of a death. This was the message from BSP Life PNG Country Manager Mr. Nilson Singh, who revealed that less than 3% of the country’s population have some form of life insurance coverage. He said that life insurance is important and people who are employed must at least have one. “Life insurance is all about protecting what you care about most, it's about your family, your children continuing tertiary education, your spouse living the life you both planned today, or your business partner being able to continue the business without you being there,” said Mr. Singh. He added that the benefits of life insurance include enabling one to make better plans for the future. “It also enables you to plan forward for future needs and enjoying the proceeds from your life insurance policy, if you survive to the policy maturity.” Mr. Singh pointed out as well that the reasons for the low life insurance coverage are a lack of proper awareness by financial institutions of the importance of life insurance products and insurance companies having to exit the market abruptly. However, despite this, there is optimism that life insurance coverage will improve in the near future. “We are optimistic that with continued education and awareness in the market, we will surely see a lot more people taking up life insurance; thus, protecting their loved ones, as well as using insurance to save for the future.” BSP Life PNG itself is a subsidiary of BSP Financial Group Limited (BSP) and provides life insurance products that are aimed at selected market segments to provide insurance cover that meet corporate and individual needs. BSP Life PNG has three products: Loan Protection Insurance, Wantok Delite and Wantok Group Term Life. The BSP subsidiary is also a strong advocator for life insurance coverage in Papua New Guinea.

The cluster of debris at the PNG Power Limited Rauna one and Rauna three upstream gate at the Hydro power station has resulted in water shortage experienced this morning in the city of Port Moresby. This has been confirmed by PNG Power Limited this morning. This situation is usually experienced after heavy rains during a period of time, causing the dam to overflow and forcing PPL to release the access water, which then lead to debris in the water. Thousands of city residents this morning woke up to no water in many parts of the city. It is still not sure when the debris will be cleared to allow for the normal resumption of water supply to the city. You can follow us on the PNGHAUSBUNG Website and Facebook page for more news on restoration of this service and listen in to the news on LEGEND FM News, YUMI FM News and NAU FM News at 12pm today.  

The government had remained silent over the fuel shortage issue until the final hours of today that the Acting Prime Minister John Rosso assured the nation of the governments intentions to restore the much-needed fuel supply by this evening. Before the assurance came from the government, PNG Power Ltd warned people living in the outside centers of the country that they had no choice but to brace for the worst, should the fuel crisis continued to remain unsolved. That was the word from the PNG Power Limited (PPL) Chief Executive Officer (OIC) Mr. Obed Batia, who said that the power company like all others who are dependent on fuel, have no choice but to wait for this matter to be fixed. He said for the main centers like Port Moresby, Lae and Madang, there is no need for concern as those centers are supplied by hydro power, and gas to power plants. It’s just those centers outside like Manus, Wewak, Aitape, Vanimo and Daru to name to name a few that are at the mercy of the authorities who are looking into this matter. Nevertheless, the power company is taking measures like power load shedding to ensure fuel is preserved until such time the fuel crisis is over. However, this will not be necessary anymore because the Acting Prime Minister John Rosso gave the assurance that the fuel crisis will be resolved by this evening. [video width="1920" height="1080" mp4="https://pnghausbung.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/PPL-on-fuel-crisis.mp4"][/video]

The fuel crisis continues, and it’s bound to affect power supply and flights, both international and domestic. Some of the main organizations to be affected by this issue are PNG Power Limited and the national flag carrier, Air Niugini. Both organizations are expected to make a response on this today as we await updates from outer centres on the fuel situation at hand. For more information on the fuel situation, listen to Legend FM PNG, NAUFM and 93FM Yumi FM news or read more on pnghausbung .